Transformation Station

Frank Woodson calls it "The River," a movement of people mixed together without a label, moving in the same direction with the same goal. What's driving the current and connecting these metaphorical streams is a community-development nonprofit called Mission Birmingham Transformation Strategies, where Woodson serves as executive director.

One of it's most successful campaigns is an outreach effort called the Ready Day one Initiative, which will take place on Aug. 3. During the event, volunteers distribute school supplies and uniforms to impoverished children. They then show these children that there is someone in the community that cares about their education by washing their feet, a symbolic gesture meant to show compassion and selfless love.

The event is a result of a presentation Superintendent Craig Witherspoon gave at a Partners in Education meeting in 2012. Witherspoon recognized that there were internal and external barriers that were keeping a large number of inner-city school children from attending the first 30 days of school. That problem not only left many students behind in class, but also threw off Birmingham City School's funding, which is based on attendance. Witherspoon reached out to Frank Woodson for help identifying these barriers.

"If you could imagine only 60 percent of the kids showing up the first 30 days, then the other 40 percent coming 30 days later, that threw the whole funding mechanism off for the urban school district, which can't afford to lose more money," Woodson says. "It took the schools over a month to normalize. That means that no academic instruction occurred, really, for those 30 days. They didn't know how many teachers they needed, books or chairs and desks, because children in urban school districts don't return to school until after Labor Day."

MBTS took this situation as a challenge to affect the lives of these children by creating the Ready Day One Initiative, which aims to prepare families and get these students in class on the first day.

MBTS began contacting these low-income families and encouraging them to start the school registration process in early July, instead of at the last minute. They provided the parents with the information they needed to get their children registered on a simple website designed such that everyone, including parents who aren't technologically savvy, is able to navigate it.

The organization also recognized that many families in the urban school district, especially those in poverty, are making choices between shelter, clothing and food. Many times, when a parent can't afford to buy uniforms, school supplies and school lunches, they will wait to enroll the child when the family has enough money for all three. MBTS decided to remove those barriers, Woodson says. They provided shoes, socks, multiple uniforms, book bags, supplies, a belt and a rain coat to more than 4,000 students last year, all new items obtained directly from the manufacturer.

The results were obvious: On the first day of the 2012 school year, Birmingham City Schools saw a 7 percent increase in attendance, 1,200 more than the previous year. On the second Monday, the sixth day of class, more than 23,000 students, about 96 percent, were back in the classroom, according to the MBTS website.

MBTS expects this year's Ready Day One Initiative event to be much bigger, giving supplies to 5,000 children, impacting many more families in different areas of the community.

For Director of Operations Wayne Owen, planning this event started months ago, and he is now in the process of organizing people from churches and other community groups to help the event run smoothly. There will be 22 distribution sites this year, all staffed by volunteers.

Organizing an event that affects so many people takes a lot of coordination, Woodson says. And when it works, it's a beautiful thing, watching people from different walks of life blending together for the betterment of the community.

"That's the fun things about what we get to do, we get to blur the lines. We all it embracing our common unity to transform our community," Woodson says. "We've found out that if you're willing to empower others, you can do this all day."

To check out video from last year's Ready Day One Initiative click here, and for more information about Mission Birmingham Transformation Strategies visit mbtsal.com